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Association of Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Frailty among Chinese Elders: A Cross-Sectional Study in Three Cities

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The journal of nutrition, health & aging

Abstract

Objectives

To examine the association of FVI and frailty in Chinese elders.

Design

A sectional study was conducted in three cities (Shanghai, Zhengzhou, and Baoji) in China from June 2017 to June 2018.

Participants

A total of 5699 participants from 49 districts were included in the current study by two-stage sampling methods.

Measurements

Frailty was measured by a validated Chinese version of the FRAIL scale. FVI per day was measured by two single questions

Results

The sample proportion with sufficient fruit intake was 36.7%, and 44.7% reported sufficient vegetable intake. The sample proportions that were robust, pre-frail, and frail were 43.6%, 38.3%, and 18.1%, respectively. Compared with low FVI, after including covariates, the odds ratio (OR) of frailty was 0.84 (95% CI: 0.73–0.97) for moderate fruit intake and 0.81 (95% CI: 0.70–0.94) for enough fruit intake; the OR of frailty was 0.83 (95% CI: 0.68–0.91) for moderate vegetable intake and 0.77 (95% CI: 0.64–0.93) for enough vegetable intake.

Conclusion

High FVI was negatively associated with the OR of frailty in Chinese elders. This finding implies it is important to promote FVI among adults to prevent frailty.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by National key R&D Program of China (grant number:2018YFC2002001).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, Fudan University, 200032, Shanghai, China

    Junling Gao, Y. Jia, J. Dai, H. Fu, Y. Wang, H. Yan, Y. Zhu & X. Nie

  2. Po BOX 248, 138 Yixueyuan Road, 200032, Shanghai, China

    Junling Gao

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  1. Junling Gao
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  2. Y. Jia
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  3. J. Dai
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  4. H. Fu
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  7. Y. Zhu
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  8. X. Nie
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Junling Gao.

Ethics declarations

Ethical Standards: This study has been approved by the Institutional Review Board of Fudan University. The design and procedures of the study were performed in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Statement of Potential Conflict of Interest: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Financial disclosure: All authors have no financial disclosures.

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Gao, J., Jia, Y., Dai, J. et al. Association of Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Frailty among Chinese Elders: A Cross-Sectional Study in Three Cities. J Nutr Health Aging 23, 890–895 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-019-1236-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-019-1236-4

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